Tasha Could Make That

Vintage knitting, sewing, and a lifetime of craftiness

Knit it in Flag Colors – finished Ravellenic Games project

by 51 Comments

Well hello my friends! I know, it’s been awhile! I expected to share with you my progress on my project during the Ravellenic Games, Ravelry‘s knitting version of the Olympics that coincide with the Olympics. However, not only have I been caught up in watching the Olympics (London, you’re doing an awesome job!), I had to change my project. I started off with fair isle legwarmers for autumn, but then couldn’t watch the coverage while looking at my colorwork chart, so I pulled out a long-languishing work-in-progress sweater that I hadn’t touched since winter of 2011. I had the body knitted but no sleeves and no collar, so in the last week and a half I finished the sweater and crossed the finish line!

It’s a vintage pattern from Australian Women’s Weekly in 1942, called Knit it in Flag Colors. And though initially intended for a different flag, this project couldn’t be more appropriate for the London Olympics, don’t you think? It’s a free pattern, available here.

Here’s the original sweater:

And now for mine, knit in fingering weight yarn and a slightly looser-than-normal gauge of 6.5 spi. The body is shaped with paired increases from the ribbing to the armholes, like an inverted trapezoid (which I talked about last February in the Briar Rose KAL). My Ravelry project page is here.

Obviously, I made a few changed, including flip-flopping the red and the white (my white is actually un-dyed yarn, but looks very bright next to the blue). One fortunate occurrence of not knitting on this for a year and a half is that when I picked it back up, I realized I was trying to decide what to do about the sleeves when I last worked on it. This time around I opted for long sleeves since I almost never wear my short-sleeved knits. I was talking to Liz from zilredloh.com last week when I met up with her (incidentally, I adore her and can’t believe it’s taken this long for us to meet!!), and we commiserated with one another about this. So, long sleeves it was. (Which I knit slightly too loose at the upper arm, oops.)

I opted to carry the stripe and color changes across the sleeve cap instead of knitting the intarsia stripes up the sleeves like the original pattern. To do this for a highly patterned project, the sleeve cap has the be the same number of rows from the armhole to the cast off as the body is from the armhole to the shoulder. That means the sleeve cap is going to have a bit more ease in it, which worked perfectly if you’re into 1940s styles, because you can just gather that bit of excess up into a beautiful gathered sleeve cap. Of course that wasn’t imperative for this project since the last color change was further down my arm, but I still used the same technique.

Another alteration I made was the collar. Instead of knitting two pieces flat and then seaming them to the neckline, I simply picked up stitches (along the inside, since the collar rolls out) and knit it out from there. Instead of folding under the edges and hemming it, I used ribbing as the border and bound off very loosely. When blocking, I had to roll the collar exactly the way I wanted it to lay so that the white from the inside didn’t show at the roll line. I also took a little stitch at the very center front to get the two halves to lay perfectly butt up against one another.

I fretted about the collar color and solicited advice from friends on my Ravelry teams, and in the end I’m really glad I went with red. Blue (which I started with) was too flag looking, and white would have faded into the background.

The back has a little surprise! (Other than my messy hair.)

A four button placket! Now, remembering that I knit the body a year and a half ago, when I went to put it all together I realized my top two buttonholes were slightly closer together than the others, and I have no clue why I would have done that (unless it was on accident). But the top button is mostly hidden by the collar, so I don’t really care.

I used a hidden snap closure at the upper edge of the band so that it didn’t pull open slightly from the weight of the collar on the left side. Per the pattern, I used a double crochet stitch the edge the buttonband. These are cute little  moonglow buttons from my vintage button stash. I’m so glad I went with red buttons! I love the little ‘pop’.

Overall, I’m very satisfied with this pullover! It’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but I think it will work nicely for autumn. (Crazily, it is cool enough here today that when I took photos, I actually wasn’t dying from heat like I would have been any other day this summer!)

I hope to get back to more regular blogging soon. I’ve been having a bit of style ennui which has translated into blogging ennui. I know I’ve completely failed with keeping up on my Made and Making posts, and I’ve wanted to post again for the Vintage Knitting College series for ages and haven’t pulled that together yet either. Sorry! I’ve also been really on a knitting kick, which means no sewing has happened. It all just means I haven’t had much of anything to share.

Anyway, I do hope you’re doing well and enjoy my latest knit!

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Dolly Cool Clare says

    Love this knit! I would have also swapped the colors round like you did so there was more red in the design, and the long sleeves are much more practical than a s/s. Well done you, looks fabulous 🙂

    Reply

  4. Victoria says

    So, adorable! Love it, you did such a great job and how you switched the colors around really makes a statement, especially using red on the collar too! Another stand out detail are those red buttons on back.

    Reply

  6. Stephanie Lynn says

    Super lovely! I have a sweater that is sooo close to being finished but I’ve just not been able to bring myself to knit lately. Today is nice and cool though so it’s almost knitting season again. 🙂

    Reply

  8. lladybird says

    I love this! The changes you made just give the whole thing a nice pop – and the fit is so beautiful. I don’t think I would wear short sleeve knits either, so glad you went with the longer sleeves.

    As a side note, I’m so excited to meet you & Liz when I’m in Chicago next month 😀 Yay!

    Reply

  9. Jill says

    Oh man, I just adore the sweater. Everything about it is perfect! I’ve been knitting for a while, but never done anything like a sweater or even socks, how would you rate the difficulty of this pattern?

    Reply

    • Tasha says

      It’s hard to say since I made a lot of shaping modifications, but since it’s in stockinette it’s pretty straight-forward! But I can say sweaters and socks aren’t anything to be scared of, once you try you’ll be hooked. 🙂

      Reply

  13. zilredloh says

    I just left you a comment on your Ravelry page, but had to post one here too! 🙂

    Your jumper is so cute. I don’t think it’s boring at all! I think it looks like a classic, 40’s knit that can pair with many different “bottoms”. The long sleeves are a good choice. I’ve been debating fall knits and have purposefully set some patterns aside since they have short sleeves. It helps to chat about these things with a fellow knitter. 🙂

    Reply

    • Tasha says

      I really need to work on “bottoms” to wear it with, I don’t have a lot of options in my wardrobe currently! And honestly I’m soo glad I went with the long sleeves. 🙂

      Reply

    • Tasha says

      Probably about 20 total, but there are only a handful that I wear regularly, so I’m trying to really knit things I know I want to wear a lot. 🙂

      Reply

  17. Moe says

    So freakin’ cute! I have such a soft spot for red, white and blue, which I think has nothing to do with patriotism, but maybe just nostalgia for things like that sweater. I love the the collar on it too. I think I may attempt to knit a sweater again this summer. I exilled myself from knitting for a while when I found myself getting too impatient, but I think I might be ready to give it another go. Especially when I have delightful inspiration from you!

    Reply

  27. Jessica Cangiano says

    Oh my stars, that is one absolutely marvelous handmade sweater. I adore that you opted for red, not white, on the bottom area, and think that partnering it with classic denim was a stellar choice. You look beyond lovely, dear Tasha – and will have me yearning for a vintage fitted red sweater akin to this one from here on out 🙂

    Big hugs & joyful weekend wishes,
    ♥ Jessica

    Reply

  30. Andrea says

    I love the changes you made to this pattern especially the collar. I just frogged my version of it because I hated my color choices. I decided to go bold and do dark green, yellow and white. I should have been sensible and gone with the colors recommended. I’m rethinking the short sleeve knit. Last winter was so warm that the only handknit I wore was my Briar Rose.

    Reply

  35. nadine says

    hi tasha, that is SOOOOO funny. a few month ago i was pretty sick and so i had a lot of time to look for knitting patterns. and found this one and decided that i will change the colours a bit – and here it is just the way you knitted it 😀 it turned out absolutely pretty – you look great in it!
    best wishes from germany
    nadine

    Reply

  39. Casey says

    I love the modifications you made to the pattern for your version–it’s better than the original, imho! 🙂 That collar just keeps drawing me in; I have a huge weakness for Peter Pan collars and a sweater featuring one would be so cute… 😀 However, must finish the dozen or so other projects on my knitting to-do list first! lol.

    Reply

  41. Sarah says

    That sweater is absolutely to die for! I can’t wait until fall comes, I’m having a hard time knitting in heat. My genetics aren’t made for it. :p

    Reply

  44. Jessica says

    You are too cute! I just found you from a Twitter recommendation! I love that I’m finding more vintage lovers closer to me! I’m in Eastern Tennessee. So Chicago isn’t such a stretch.

    Reply

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